Falling
by Claudia Raelynn
Summary: Jareth has siblings. A sister and a brother, Jabin. This is his story and his miraculous savior rescuing him from the depths of his alcoholic father's abuse.


Falling  
  
Falling I seem to be falling And you stand so high above.  
  
In a nursery, somewhere unknown and sometime it seems forever ago, an six-month-old baby stands in his crib with the assistance of the railing. A little girl, merely three-years-old, looks up from her expensive dolls. "Jabin! You are standing up! Good boy!" She raced over to the crib side and clapped her hands. "Good job!" Eight-year-old Jareth looked up from his puzzle. "Jabin!" he joined his sister by the crib. "Nanny says that babies don't stand up until they are one-years-old and Jabin is still none! He's advanced. He doesn't even crawl yet." Jabin giggled in response. "You crawled for a long time, Julina." "Yeah, because mother bought me pretty dresses, but I couldn't stand up in them. What about you?" "I don't know. The only one older then me is Jacen and he didn't live with us until his mommy died." The door suddenly burst open by a swollen red-faced man and the children turned around guiltily. Jabin fell and was ready to cry when the man took long strides into the room and glared down at the baby, daring it to cry. "What are you doing? Sitting there as if you have all the time in the world?" the man spat. "You will grow old and weary soon, and you will have to work your fingers boneless for your ungrateful children, just as I do." He swayed drunkenly and slapped Jareth when the boy reached out to help him. "Don't touch me!" he yelled. "You hideous children! I swear, you will grow old and you will die and I will live beyond you children to laugh at your graves." He turned and walked out of the room, leaving the door agape. Jareth's mind was spinning from the strike, Julina's eyes threatened to brim over with tears while Jabin swallowed anything that resembled a cry, vowing to never cry again. They made a silent oath that moment. they would never let their father's prophecy come true.  
  
These fantasies swarm around me  
  
before your eyes; you don't see  
  
As the father left, a black haired boy, almost ten, entered. "You are failures. Even the brat," he motioned with his head to Jabin, "You'll never amount to anything but sorry losers like father." Jareth stood up with years far beyond his eight. He was shaken by his father's visit, but he would not let his selfish half-brother know that. "What are you doing here, Jacen?" "Does it matter? I came to visit my brothers and sister. Tell father, and he'll restrict me from coming in here, but when you turn nine and you have to move out of the nursery, you'll be restricted from coming here, too." "What do you want?" "To spend time with the legitimate children, you dork." Jareth stood up straighter and clenched his fists, but Julina stepped forward. "Would you like to borrow some of our toys, Jacen?" "Yeah, right. I don't want your stupid toys. Actually, I just wanted to tell you that Father is right. You will grow old and die. And if you're lucky you'll be able to work. Otherwise you'll have to live on the street like me and my mother." He left then and the children looked at the closed door. Jareth shook his head as he approached his bed. "I am never growing old. and I am never going to die." Julina whispered her agreement from under the covers. With the light off for the night, Jabin stared into the darkness thinking of ways to beat death and aging when a great blue light seemed to envelope him.  
  
At the edge of a cliff  
  
Teetering over depths Or at the edge of the earth  
  
Floating though eternity  
  
"Jabin," a voice whispered, the light caressing Jabin's face. "Sweet Jabin." A blue-skinned man, invisible to his semi-conscience brother and sister approached the crib. Jabin looked up with big eyes. Long, icy fingers brushed Jabin's cheek. "What you want I know." What about my brother and sister? Jabin asked without a voice. "The way their own they'll find. For you I've come. Favorable I find you. my beautiful Jabin." Why? "Moonman I am. Question me you shall not." Alright. "Immortality what you want is. Give to you can I. Something shall you give to me." What? "Questions of yours are many, beloved Jabin. Immortality I give you, but you must give me. you." I don't understand. "Fear not. Not understand you shall. But agree and shall get what you want." What must I do? After a small laugh he nodded. "Yes, yes. You must do. I will be back my favorite. Beloved."  
  
My fading thoughts are laced by string  
  
And you've taken all my song to sing  
  
*Jabin's life was eventful, as was his siblings. Growing from birth to fifteen showed the world that Jabin truly was advanced. He was able to walk successfully by his first birthday, and his father still berated him and his brother and sister for not accomplishing enough, always yelling that they shouldn't be sitting around as if they'd had all the time in the world. By the time he was four, he realized he had a hard time remembering anything. It seemed as if many thoughts were sucked from his brain and then later replaced in the wrong place. His mother brought him to doctors who blamed Jabin's memory loss on either his geniuses or his alcoholic father. He knew the Moonman would comeback to fulfill his promise. Knowing that Moonman was the reason for his memory loss, and knowing Moonman chose him because of his advanced brain, he tried to hide his extensive knowledge, but his attempts were unsuccessful. Jabin's mother, a dreamer, believed that he would be a famous man someday, though Jabin never encouraged her. Jacan grew even more resentful toward Jabin and his brother and sister because of the attention Jabin was getting, but Jareth and Julina only felt pride because they knew they were the ones that had primarily raised him. Jabin grew advanced in his schooling, being accepted into a collage by the time he was ten years of age. Julina had grown into a tall, beautiful woman and all the men wanted her, but she warded them off by her words and by her hobbies. She relished in studying insects. Reading and, even occasionally to scare proposing men, talking to them. At the age of eighteen she knew what she wanted to become in life, vowing to care for bugs her whole life and beyond - they would rescue her and help her fill her oath for immortality. One day, she left for the zoo, and she didn't return. Jareth had grown into a strong young man in his early twenties and one night had stood at the front window of their aristocratic home as their father walked down the steps to the nearby pub to get drunk, as he did every night. Murderous thoughts raced through his mind and he turned to follow his father when he caught Jacen looking at him. Jacen had followed a dark path of mysterious magic and Jareth eyed him warily. He hadn't seen Jacen around as of late, and now he wondered at his half- brother's appearance. With a few shared words and no trust between the two of them, they joined forces for one night and followed their father, their only similar blood, down to a pub. When he was severely drunk they led him to a dark ally and killed him. "What is better?" Jacen had asked, more to himself and the dark night, then anyone else. "To be downplayed and harassed by your father. as you were, Half-Brother, or to be ignored by your father and have him pretend that you don't exist to him. That you were obviously a mistake?" Neither Jareth nor Jacen attended the funeral, and Jabin sat next to his mother who had an absent look on his face, daydreaming of better days. maybe days not of this world. The people who attended were either the rich, elite men and their wives who worked at the bank and the sad barflies that would miss their father's easy cash. Soon, feeling abandoned by the Moonman the night of his father's funeral and Jabin's 15th birthday, Jabin sat in a chair and thought, as he had in the past. He could sit in his chair and think for hours at a time and the chair is where he got many of his ideas. He felt a familiar presence and tried to hold back some excitement as a glowing blue light ascended upon Jabin.  
  
Tears around me  
  
Threaten to choke And you can't stop them  
  
Falling, Falling, Falling  
  
"My sweet Jabin. Remember me, you do?" he murmured softly. "Moonman," Jabin replied. "You came back. For such a long time, I thought you were a dream to me," Moonman caressed the left-side of Jabin's neck. "I am growing old and I may die." "Been watching you have I. Been watching you always. Now I've come for the time is here." "I am ready for you." "I know." "I've been ready." "I know." "Why haven't you come?" "Beloved, questions you ask are many." "I know, Moonman. I'm sorry." "My sweet Jabin. Ready you are. Remember you will, Immortality." "I get immortality, and prove my father wrong and you get. me. I don't understand what you get, though, Moonman." "Hmmm. Not understand you shall. It all later you will understand. With me come?"  
  
And maybe you don't care anymore  
  
So what am I waiting for?  
  
"I know this sounds ungrateful, Moonman, but I care about my brothers and my sister. And now that I'll be immortal, I'll never see them again." "Worry not you must about those children. Strong as yours their wills are, and they, too, because of your father, will seek away to avoid common future to the gravesite." "They. they live for eternity, too?" "Hummm. Tell you that I cannot. To go, then, you're ready?" "Yes. I'll go willingly, as I've already agreed with you. The only ones I love in the galaxy won't die as father says, and I may see them again." Moonman raised a blue hand toward him; his long, glittering fingers sparkled in the dark nothingness of Jabin's mind. Placing them on the left side of his neck, Jabin shivered, first at Moonman's icy coldness and then at the frozen pain that began to amplify and burn into his flesh. So great was frosty pain that Jabin released his consciousness.  
  
The metal catches a gleam  
  
Scarlet emotions sink to the bottom Shows me blood is thicker then water  
  
My eyes look up as the last thing  
  
Waking up on the floor of the expensive washroom, Jabin collected his bearings and stood up. He rubbed his naked flesh that had begun to freeze in the night air, and then he delicately caressed his neck, which throbbed gently in long fingerprints. Jabin turned toward the mirror and arched his head so he could see the damage done to his skin. A glittering, almost alive sliver of moon gleamed back at him as if it were judging him as much as he was assessing it. As his fingers touched it, he was given the impression that the moon was touching him back, and Jabin dropped his hands to his sides and turned from the mirror. Through the open window, a breeze fluttered in and filled the room, surrounding Jabin with an ominous whisper that seemed to fill his very being, "Mine now you are, Child. Go back the moon will never let you. To the moon yourself surrender now, and forever shall you live." Jabin turned to look for a sharp object, but the air in the middle of the room began to shimmer. Transfixed, Jabin watched as a long stick appeared and then a metal and jeweled engraved dragonhead morphed at one end and it shifted to the floor, standing erect of its own testament. "This dragonstick take now, companion everlasting of yours as it will help goal of your accomplish." Jabin reached for the dragonstick and as he touched it, its bottom became sharp and sword-like. The breeze threatened into a howling wind to Jabin's ears as his let the dragonstick enter his chest and pierce his heart. Pain unimaginable coursed through his body and he fell backward into the full bathtub, his blood swirling intricate patterns as it mixed in the water. Jabin forced his eyes to raise as the wind lowered to baby whispers and the blue Moonman stepped closer, looking down at Jabin and smiling a conquering smile. With a slight nod, Jabin's tense muscles relaxed and he stopped trying to suck in oxygen. "My sweet Jabin," Moonman murmured in the darkness.  
  
And there you are standing tall  
  
Waiting there to watch me fall 


End file.
